Ball-lapping machine



R. w. sELLEw.. BALL LAPPlNGvMACH-ENE.

APPLICATION FILED 0CT.15| 1920.

'1,418,8'- Mmmm@ 6,1m

- MMM/W tion.

RCLAND wrivCHEs'rER sELLEW,l oF

or CONNECTICUT.

N-EW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR T0 THEA FAFNIR BEARING- COMPANY, 40F NEW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT, A.COR.`PORATIO1\T BALL-LA PPI'NC MACHINE.

Misset,

To all whom t may concern: y

Be it known thatl, ROLAND W. SELLEW, a citizen of the.United Statesof America, residing at New Britain, Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Ball-Lapping lMachine, of which the following is a specifica- My invention relates to a machine for bearings.

It is usual in machines of this type to pro` videl two relatively rotatable grinding disks having grooves therein to contain the balls;

achines have been constructed wherein the balls are takenfrom all of the grooves and then 'returned to the grooves after the balls have beenmore or less mixed. A'The object of such machines-is to prevent the balls from being constantly ground or lapped in the same grooves by attempting to insure the entrance of the balls into different grooves to insure uniformity in the finished.

product. In machines where chance alone groove into a different groove, it is obvious that the same ball will often return to the .sought to be attained will be defeated.

It is -an object of my invention therefore to provlde a machine in which the balls will be taken from one or more ofthe grooves and directed toward one or more other grooves in order to reduce to a minimum the in one groove.

In machines as ordinarily constructed, it very often happens that the balls are ground or lapped ofi' too much duringv the time that one or more of the balls are being gauged to determine if the tained. lt is another object of my invention therefore to -provide means whereby a greater length of time may be consumed in gauging one or more balls without the danger of possibility of having a ball constantly travel grinding or lapping o toomuch from thel remaining balls in the machine.

^ Other objects will tion proceeds.

In the preferred form of my invention there are provided twoA relatively rotatable l one or both of which have A hopper'isprovided for grinding discs, grooves therein.

' receiving the balls from said grooves and permitting the rel-distribution of thevv balls to Specification of Letters Patent.

or lapping ballsto be used in ball.

direct the balls from one l for the disc 11 and `may be Vvari-ed by means l same groove it has just left, and the results scribed ,will be readily apparent.

proper size has been at` appear as the speciica A suitable conveyer is balls from one or more the various' grooves. provided and receives ofthe grooves and directs the same back into the hopper andtoward different grooves;

In the drawings which show merely a preferred form of myinvention.

Figure 1, is a sectional view showing a pair. of grinding discs and theirvmountings.

1g. 2 is a partially' diagrammatic view embodying features of my invention.

In' said drawings, 5 represents a suitable frame or mounting.

of the grinding disc.

yballs are ground or lapped between these two discs. A thrust bearing 12 is provided the degree of pressure lto be exerted upon the'balls between the discs which in the preferred form is ,formed ,by

cutting away or recessing one ofthe discs to form the hopper indicated at`15. A. 'suitable plate or plates 16 may be provided for `enclosing the space formed by the recessvin ythe disc in order to form a suitable hopper within the recess and betweemthe complementarydisc and the plate or plates.

v'Balls from one or more of the grooves are the hopper and preferably toward other grooves than those from Which-they were received. In the illustrative grooves `v17%18 are received by a suitable chute 19 vand are conducted through any suitable or Patented June e, ieee.

y In the frame is slid` -ably but non-rotatably mounted a shaft or mounted between thel 10 carry-` of the screw 13.

and returning the-same toV ln` o'rder to accomplish received by suitable means and directed into desired form of mechanical or gra'vity conveyor 20 back into the hopper as by means of the return chute 21. In the form shown,the balls taken from the two outer grooves are positively directed back into the hopper and toward grooves other than the two outer grooves, A machine embodying the novel features described will operate as follows zrlhe balls between the discs and in the inner grooves upon reaching the hopper will tend to move outwardly due to centrifugal force as soon as they are released from the grooves. Therefore, balls which have been in the inner grooves upon reaching the hopper will naturally fall into an outer groove at the bottom the hopper. The balls from the inner grooves will progress outwardly between the discs until they reach one of the outer grooves, and these balls upon again reaching the hopper will be received by the chute and conveyor and positively directed back into the hopper, and toward the inner grooves. It will thus be seen that by my invention chance alone is not relied upon to shift the balls from one groove to another. The balls by reason of centrifugal action will progressively move t-o the outerV grooves and upon reaching the outer grooves will be received and positively directed back toward the inner grooves.

Another feature of my invention resides in the fact that due to the size of the hopper and conveyor, the number of balls capable of being contained between the discs in the hopper and conveyor will be far in excess of the number of balls adapted to be contained between the discs alone. This feature is of great importance in that when only sufficient balls to fill the grooves between the discs are being lapped, and one or more balls are removed for the purpose of being gauged to see if the lapping operation is complete, the other balls remaining between the discs may be lapped off too much during the time consumed in gauging the few balls removed for that purpose.- However, if say for example, twice as many balls are being lapped in the machine, it obviously requires twice the length of time for the balls to pass through the machine, and therefore twice the time may be consumed in gauging one or more balls to determine if the proper size' has been attained, without too much being lapped off during the time consumed in gauging the balls which were removed for that purpose.

Vhile I have shown one embodiment of my invention, I wish it to be understood that the embodiment shown is merely illustrative and that various changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the appended claims.l

I claim:

1. In a ball lapping machine, a pair of relatively rotatable grinding discs, one of said discs having a plurality of annular grooves therein arranged one within the other, means for receiving balls from more than one of said grooves and positively directing them toward more than one of the others of said grooves.

2. In a ball lapping machine. a pair of relatively rotatable grinding discs, one of said discs having a plurality of annular grooves therein arranged one within the other, means for receiving balls from a plurality of the outer of said grooves and positively directing them toward a plurality of the inner of said grooves.

3. In a ball lapping machine, a pair of relatively rotatable grinding discs, one of which has a plurality of annular g'rooves therein arranged one within the other, one of said discs being recessed to provide-a ball transfer space in communication with all of said grooves, means in one partof said space for receiving-balls from one of said grooves, and means in another part of said space for transferring said balls to grooves other than those from which they were previously received.

4. In a ball lapping machine, a pair of relatively rotatable grinding discs one of which has a plurality of annular grooves therein arranged one within the other, one

of said discs being cut away to form a space for the feeding and transfer of balls, means within said space for receiving balls forming a plurality of the outer grooves, and for transferring the same to another portion of said space and positively directing the same toward one or more of said inner grooves.

ROBERT WINCHESTER SELLEW. 

